Marking Kit - Stickers & Tags

I recently read a post on UKD about someone who nearly 'lost' a cylinder whilst leaving it to be filled at the dive site, the cylinder was mistakenly given to another diver. Knowing how much kit costs, I thought I'd start marking some of my kit to prevent accidental loss.

I've just received a SOLAS sticker from divesigns.com which is an adhesive, highly reflective vinyl sticker which can be applied to a tank or SMB. Cost just over £10.00 which included adding my phone number to the side of the sticker. Excellent quality but may need to be removed when it goes for test in a few years - not sure on their view to stickers and potential hidden corrosion etc.



I've also just received a couple of acrylic tags from dive-logs.com which I've attached to my kit & reg bags. Again, fully customisable and only cost £3-£4 per tag, each tag comes with a stainless ring & matching cable tie (I just love cable ties).

I've removed the last few digits from my tel. number to prevent rubber suited perverts from calling at 02.00 The 50p is for scale.



I received both tags and stickers within just a few days of ordering them, both divesigns.com and dive-logs.com come highly recommended.

Steve

Cheers for posting this - I'd started a post a while back about those Scubatags, but didn't get an entirely straight answer about their quality and so on. On the flip-side, I did learn a lot of curious facts about our fellow UKD members' underwear and genitalia... rubber-suited perverts, indeed. But, back to this thread, it's great to see the finished articles you purchased and hear another good report on the service from both companies - so, thanks! Seeing your post has convinced me to order Scubatags of my own, now...

Also, can't rate that Solas stuff highly enough, as both a diver and an occasional skipper. I went a bit 'Blue Peter' over the winter and made my own version, sticking strips of Solas to my dSMB and then vinyl-cut letters on top of that. Seems to have worked pretty well so far, although I did use a bit of Aquasure and a roller to ensure a good bond. Time will tell!

And... Cable Ties? Oh, yes - right up there with Gaffa Tape and WD40!

At what point is information on other members' members not useful?!

Wasn't sure whether to buy/borrow some Aquasure and apply it to the edges of the vinyl, just to make sure water doesn't get behind.

From what I've heard about those DiveSign.com stickers, I reckon you'll be just fine without 'Aquasuring' them to your cylinder... I only used some as an extra precaution 'cos I was applying my Solas to a flexible surface, and I happened to have some spare.

Marker pen on my tanks and fins etc. stops the accidental honest mistake. Unfortunately nothing stops the determined thieves

If the OP is referring to my tale of nearly losing one of my cylinders then it was marked up with my sons name and was almost new, in contrast to every other rental cylinder in the place

That's the one SB, very lucky to be there and spot your tank being carried away. I should imagine you were quite pi$$ed off too in the fact that yours was marked and clearly different from the rentals YET it was still given to somebody else.

As I noted on the thread that SirLargato mentioned, I've used scubatags on my kit for a couple of purposes, they are very robust, and engraved a couple of mill into the plastic surface, so will be readable in almost any circumstance other than fire, as far as I can see.

They are however fairly big and clunky, and several quid each.

They used to do a much smaller circular tag with a single line of text on it, like a dog name tag, which IIRC they sold in sets of five.

I've tried to buy some recently, I thought I'd mark my fins and reg with them, but they seem to dropped the product.

If the assembled multitude know of somebody offering a similar product, (bi-colour plastic like the scuba tags) I'd very much like to know about a supplier.


Cheers Harry

I know Timpsons the cobblers/keycutters sell acrylic key tags online, they also list the small circular ones you mention Harry.

http://www.timpson.co.uk/shop/c/319/key-tags/s/249/key-tags/g/543/round-key-tags

Darn, I've got 25mm aluminium tags from them, I never thought to look if they did acrylic ones.

Spot on mate.

Harry

My buddy put his 15L cylinder in for a fill between dives.... it was marked with a tag attached at the neck with his details......
On returning to pick up his cylinder he found it was gone!!!
After looking round the car park and watching all the divers entering and exiting the water the tag was spotted.... The cylinder was attached to a BCD worn by a student doing their open water course.... their instructor had told them to go pick up cylinders from where they had left them to be filled..... the student was un aware that he couldnt just pick up any cylinder!!!
The instructor apologised and offered to pay for a re fill!!!

Alls well that ends well.... but dont assume that because your cylinder is marked it wont go walkies!!

http://ukdivers.com/community/threads/whos-looking-after-your-kit.2604/